Hunting apparatus



(No Model) B. OTT. HUNTING APPARATUS.

No. 584,646. Patented June 15, 1897.

WITNESSES: l/VVE/VIOR fm.Q. ,M. fenedac 032?.

ATTORNEYS.

NITE STATES ATENT GFFICE.

BENEDICT orT, or LA OROSSE, wisoonsnv.

HUNTING APPARATUS SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 584,646, dated June 15, 1897.

Application filed January 12, 1897. Serial No. 618,981. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENEDICT OTT, of La Crosse, in the county of La Grosse and State of \Visconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Hunting Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is in the nature of a novel device for chasing wild animals, such as wolves, foxes, rabbits, minks, &c., out of their subterranean holes, dens, or burrows; and it consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of an easily-portable apparatus, as will be hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claims.

Figure l-is a View of the device made of elastic tubing coiled into compact space for easy portability. Fig. 2 shows it in use in the act of dislodging an animal from its burrow. Fig. 3 shows a modification of the device in which wire rope is made to form the rotating cable. Fig. 4C is an enlarged view of the terminal bulb, and Fig. 5 a longitudinal section of the same.

In the drawings, Fig. 1, A represents a flexible cable made either of tubing, as shown in Fig. 1, or of wire rope, as shown in Fig. 3. On one end of this cable there is attached a terminal bulb B, and upon the other end is fixed either permanently or detachably a hand-crank O, constructed like a carpenters brace, such as is used for turning boringbits. To use this device, the bulb is inserted in the animals hole or burrow, as in Fig. 2, and a rotary twisting motion is given to the cable by turning the brace or crank O. This rotary motion causes the bulb and flexible cable to penetrate the hole and follow all of its bends or deviations until the bulb strikes the animal and dislodges it. To render the bulb more effective in entering the burrow, detachable spiral wings I) are fastened by screws 7), Fig. 4:, upon its periphery, which as the bulb travels along the burrow find engagement with the walls of the same and on the screw principle aid in its advance through the same. When the soil is soft, these wings are not used, but if the soil be hard they may be employed to advantage.

Then a cable constructed of wire rope is used, it should preferably be constructed with a left-hand twist, so that the natural and easy rotation of the brace or crank in the direction of the hands of a watch may not unwind the strands of the cable.

To render the device more effective for dislodging stubborn animals, I construct the bulb hollow, with holes in it, as shown in Fig. 5, and into the bulb I place some fibrous material,like cotton-waste, rags, raw cotton, the, and this is to be saturated and ignited before being inserted into the hole, the openings in the bulb serving to give access of air to the fire and to allow the issuance of smoke and gases.

In practice the best proportions to be observedfor the bulb are three to three and onehalf inches long, two inches diameter, with wings one-half inch high and one-eighth inch thick.

To enable my device to operate successfully, it is necessary that it should possess certain characteristics which I desire to point out more specifically. First,while the cable must be flexible it must also possess a certain amount of rigidity to cause it to rotate positively throughout its entire length instead of merely twisting into coils in its length.

This insures, as it revolves, a sort of Wabblin g or lateral snake-like action in advancing through a burrow, without which the device will have a tendency to bore into the walls of the burrow like a corkscrew and stick. Again, the outer surface of this stiffly-fiexible cable must be close and compact and not open like a spiral coil. This is necessary to prevent the cable from seizing hold of the thousands of rootlets which line the burrow and which with an open coil would be seized, pinched, and twisted into a tightly-entangled lIlfiSSllllELll would utterly preclude any practical use of the device, and, third, the terminal bulb on the advance end is very necessary in acting as a pilot for the advance of the cable.

Another important featureis the special construction of the crank G with a center back thrust bearing behind the double cranked portion that carries the turning-handle. This back-thrust center-bearing, while common in a carpenters brace, has a special substantially as and for the purpose de scribed.

2. A device for dislodging animals from subterranean holes comprising a stiffiy-fiexible cable having a rotary pilot-bulb at one end made hollow and provided With ventilating-holes to receive ignited matter, and a device for rotating the cable about its longitudinal axis substantially as and for the purpose described.

BENEDICT OTT.

\Vitnesses:

JNo. FOLEY, W. L. KAEPPLER. 

